Legal and Consulting Services

Protecting Corporate Value

Safeguarding Intellectual Property and Data
Securing supply chains

The systematic theft of intellectual property from companies large and small by foreign nations as well as competitors is beyond denial. Joel can help you safeguard the intellectual property on which your corporate value depends and secure your supply chain. These are organizational as much as a technical challenges, and he can help you devise better strategies to address them.

Joel was in charge of counterintelligence strategy and policy for the nation’s first three directors of national intelligence and saw first-hand what was happening in America’s networks. He was among the earliest voices to warn of the widespread theft of Western intellectual property by foreign intelligence services and their surrogates. How? Through porous networks, vulnerable supply chains, and fragmented business practices. Joel exposed the frightening extent of our losses in America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare.

As the inspector general of the National Security Agency, Joel was in charge of worldwide internal investigations, inspections, and program audit for the world’s most powerful electronic espionage agency. As NSA’s senior counsel, Joel advised NSA’s leadership on public-private information sharing.

Representative clients include firms in these areas:

Defense and aerospace

Telecommunications equipment manufacturing

Business hardware and software

Private equity

Social networking

Professional services

Avoid Trouble With CFIUS…
Transnational Acquisitions of U.S. Businesses

Buying a U.S. company? Selling your company to a foreign buyer? Never heard of CFIUS?

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. can block your deal or make you change it. CFIUS will be interested whenever a foreign entity acquires control of a U.S. business if the business has anything to do with national or homeland security. That means any business with government contracts or that involves critical infrastructure and many kinds of chemical, toxic, pharmaceutical, and advanced manufacturing technologies – and companies that handle sensitive data. Click here to learn How CFIUS Works.

Joel can help you and your corporate counsel find out early if CFIUS will be an issue in your deal and plan accordingly.

As the national counterintelligence executive, Joel’s office was responsible for the supply chain analyses that CFIUS relied on in making decisions about transactions. He knows the CFIUS process from inside and outside government and can help you avoid it or steer you through it.

Representative clients in this area:

A U.S. software leader

The U.S. affiliate of a foreign sovereign wealth fund

Network and defense operations

Government contracting

Air traffic management

Professional services

Intelligence Law, Classified Work, and Related Export Controls

Managing classified contracts and facilities involves establishing trust not only with your government client but also with the Defense Security Service. Joel’s services include dealing with intelligence agencies and DSS on a variety of security issues and, where foreign interests are involved, negotiating special security agreements and other mitigation arrangements.

Joel holds a Top Secret/SCI clearance and is available to serve on boards that require a trusted U.S. citizen under DSS regulations. He can help you navigate through the national security maze.

For companies involved in overseas network operations and other sensitive activities, Joel provides needed guidance based on years of experience inside and outside government. Many of these activities involve the International Traffic in Arms Regulations known as ITAR. Joel can negotiate the necessary technical assistance agreements that ITAR requires.

Trouble with the Inspector General? Joel served as the Inspector General of the National Security agency.

Representative clients in these areas:

Companies involved in sensitive overseas operations

Foreign companies acquiring an interest in U.S. companies with access to classified or sensitive data

Companies with sensitive compliance issues

More About Joel

Brenner talks about his career as a lawyer, writer, and intelligence official.